Enron's Jeff Skilling files appeal

Jeff Skilling's been arrogant and too talkative since the beginning of the Enron fiasco (testifying before Congress when everyone else took the 5th). Now he's behind bars, but he still won't go away.

In October, Skilling was sentenced to 24 years in prison after being convicted on 19 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading, and lying to auditors.

Now he wants a new trial. According to the Associated Press Daniel Petrocelli filed an appeal today with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. He wrote that:

Profound, inherent weaknesses in the government's case not just gaps in its evidentiary proof, but doubts about its basic theories of criminality motivated the government to resort to novel and incorrect legal theories, demand truncated and unfair trial procedures, and use coercive and abusive tactics.

In order to believe that Skilling is innocent of any wrongdoing, you essentially have to buy that former CFO Andy Fastow went deep into the bowels of Enron and cooked the books all by himself -- and no one knew about it. You also have to think that Skilling decided to dump shares of Enron because of his uncertainty surrounding the events of September 11th -- 5 days before it happened. Move over Nostradamus! Free Jeff Skilling! The CIA can use him to predict the next terrorist attack!

There's no question that the Enron Task Force made some pretty boneheaded blunders in its pursuit of justice, and maybe Skilling should and will get a new trial. But he belongs in jail, and hopefully that's where he stays for a long time.